Nostalgia for an old film stock

SUPER 8

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Super 8" is a sensational, crackling, scary, wondrous surprise of a movie. It is a lollapalooza, a doozy of a thrill ride, a reminder of the Spielberg films of the 1980's, and an absolute classic. It almost gives one faith that a surprising, original entertainment can be crafted with characters one can care about and equally filled with moments that can spook and amaze you. It is not just Spielbergian in its approach, loaded with J.J. Abrams own touches as well, but it also has that "Amazing Stories" vibe. 

A small Ohio town is the setting for the latest accident - the death of a kid's mother at a steel mill. We start right at the reception for a funeral. It is winter time and, for a second, I thought we were in the snowy landscapes of a Russell Banks novel. Not so because we shift to four months later where a group of kids are in the midst of shooting a zombie movie in the Super 8 film format (this is 1979, long before camcorders and cell phones). The pre-teen kids all gather at a train station to shoot an emotional scene with their reluctant lead actress, 14-year-old Alice (Elle Fanning, as good as her older sister, Dakota). The feisty Charles (Riley Griffiths) is the director of the film who says "It is mint!" whenever he gets a good take. Joe (Joel Courtney) is the 12-year-old kid who lost his mother at the beginning. He applies makeup to Alice in one of several touching scenes in the film. A train shows up ("Production value!") and collides with a truck causing one of the biggest train wrecks I've seen at the movies in a long time, complete with explosions and the demolishment of the station house itself! Something is in the train cars, and it isn't human. The train itself belongs to the Air Force and it may have come from Area 51! Most of my readers know that I enjoy anything having to do with Area 51 and nonhuman creatures (yes, even in the last Indiana Jones flick) so they had me at young teen kids making a zombie movie just when an astounding train wreck occurs! It definitely reads like a new tale from the "Amazing Stories" bin. 

"Super 8" never lets all of its tricks out of the bag too soon. When we get a big special-effects sequence, it adds to the story rather than detract. Also, the movie revels in the kids' personalities and the foreshadowing in background details (an action figure of Creature of the Black Lagoon in Charles's bedroom is a good example). Writer-director J.J. Abrams does his homage to Spielberg of the past proud by not revealing too much, by building tension slowly. Abrams wisely lets us soak in the kids' own dilemmas. Joe is lost in his own world of make-believe because of the loss of his own mother, and his father, a police deputy (Kyle Chandler), is not much help. Alice has issues with her drunk father (Ron Eldard) who wants nothing to do with Joe or Joe's father due to a trauma I will not reveal. Charles is the only kid who comes from a complete family, though he is wrapped too tightly around his zombie opus with hopes of making it a film festival selection. These are mostly incomplete families but rather than following the missing father dilemma from Spielberg's work (especially E.T.), these are families without mothers. And it is a sweet relationship that develops between Joe and Alice that had me rooting for them.

Yes, "Super 8" feels an awful lot like a Spielberg film. The flashlights in dark corridors or dark cemeteries; deliberate lens flares; the glowing objects from above that has its characters looking back in awe; the moments of heart-pounding suspense that echo "Jurassic Park" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"; the distrust of the military; the fact that adults are dumber than kids (even the non-Spielbergian "War Games" echoed this during the 80's of which "Super 8" echoes as well); dysfunctional, incomplete families; a high-school teacher played by Glynn Turman, who played a biology teacher in the Spielberg-produced "Gremlins"; the soaring musical cues by composer Michael Giacchino that respects composer John Williams and creates its own personality; and the careful use of curse words that can still shock when they are not abused repetitively. Yes, Spielberg's stamp is all over this since he was the producer of this film and had been on the set a great deal making suggestions, which echoed Spielberg's own distinctive stamp to Tobe Hooper's "Poltergeist". 

Despite the conscious Spielberg tropes, "Super 8" feels very much like a personal lark for J.J. Abrams and his own teen years when he made films with his friends using Super 8 film stock. It is that personal touch combined with a Spielbergian glow attached to a creepy, hysterically funny and vastly entertaining B-movie underneath it all that makes "Super 8" a classic for all ages. 

Slack Torture Porn, not too overbaked

30 MINUTES OR LESS

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"30 Minutes or Less" is a visceral, vulgar thrill ride of a slacker comedy, imbued with a touch of violence though not as torturously tedious or unsettling as "Pineapple Express." At least in this comedy, the humor is higher than the body count.

Based on the grim true story of an Erie, Pa. pizza delivery man who was strapped with a real bomb to rob a bank, Jesse Eisenberg plays the hapless pizza delivery guy, Nick, whose best friend, Chet (hilarious Aziz Ansari), is flummoxed that Nick would sleep with his sister. Bigger obstacles are headed their way when Nick delivers pizza to a junkyard address and is coerced by two nitwit slackers (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) to rob a bank. The catch is that Nick is to be strapped with a homemade bomb that will explode if Nick doesn't comply with their demands. With the time release of the bomb in question, Nick needs a crime partner and who better than Chet?

The two slacker losers who dream up this ridiculous bank robbery are Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson). They both clean the pool belonging to Dwayne's Marine father, the Major (Fred Ward), who won the lottery years earlier and spends his money on luxury gifts. Dwayne is told by a lap dancer named Juicy (Bianca Kajlich) that she can help Dwayne murder his father to collect the winnings by hiring a contract killer from Detroit (Michael Pena). Dwayne's dream is to open a tanning salon/massage parlor though his equally stupid accomplice, Travis, thinks an abortion clinic might be a good moneymaker.

Yes, this is the latest in what I would like to call "Slack Torture Porn." These are movies that are filled with plot twists and center on pot-smoking slackers who redefine their manhood (or maybe just their laziness) by robbing and killing people. "Pineapple Express" was a clumsy and profanely unfunny take on Cheech and Chong (if that is possible) that upped the ante on gratuitous and sickeningly blood-drenched violence. The film was so awfully violent that the humor was lost completely. Thankfully, "30 Minutes or Less" is funnier and not as violence-proned (though the plot might make some queasy). The Nick and Chet characters are so engaging to watch that I would have watched them in any sort of story, so why did it have to be about a bomb-strapped Nick forced to commit bank robbery? An excuse for some action and a car chase perhaps.

I laughed many times through this movie but the final fifteen minutes are overbaked and chock full of one too many coincidences after another (though I did like the car chase to the tune of "The Heat is On" and a laser pointer is put to good use). A scene between the marine and the hired killer feels extraneous and could have been more imaginatively handled. Still, Eisenberg and Ansari make a good team and I would not scoff at seeing them reappear in another movie.

Actress Sarah Polley once commented that Quentin Tarantino and his irony-fueled tales of pulp fiction extremes ruined Generation X. I disagree, I think the Tarantino imitators ruined it, imbuing graphic violence with fake irony. Now slacker comedies forgo comedy for ironic and graphic violence. As I said, "30 Minutes or Less" is not heavy on violence - it is breezier and pokes a little fun at itself. I would have liked more surprise in its plot and it is possible that Slack Torture Porn may reach an end sooner than expected, but this one is better than most.

A Modern-Day Capraesque Insurance Tale

CEDAR RAPIDS (2011)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

A friend of mine told me the other day that after seeing "The Hangover" three times, he felt that there was nothing to take away from it. Yes, hilarious film at times but it leaves nothing to chew on after it is over. "Cedar Rapids" is a milder, less frenetic take on "The Hangover" with a lot more heart and savvy humor (and Cedar Rapids replaces Vegas). There is also something to chew on afterwards.

Ed Helms is Tim Lippe, a Wisconsin-born insurance salesman from the town of Brown Valley. Lippe's boss died from a bizarre incident that is best left for you to find out when you see it. It is now up to Lippe to take his place in attending an insurance convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and receive the coveted "Two Diamonds" award, kind of like the seal of approval for insurance companies. Only problem is that the dead boss's deviant behavior might cause a rift with Orin Helgesson (Kurtwood Smith), the righteous leader of the insurance pack (ASMI, or American Society of Mutual Insurance) who bestows these awards annually. Lippe stays in what he considers a luxurious hotel, and his hotel roomates, including the irreverent Dean Ziegler (John C. Reilly) and straight-shooter Ronald Wilkes (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), may cause some complications when Lippe is told not to trust Dean! To make matters more difficult, the married insurance saleswoman, Joan (Anne Heche), develops a fondness for Lippe. And the prostitute Bree (Alia Shawkat) may also add more complication than necessary.

Tim Lippe is such a naive and innocent man that the film could have treated his character as a simpleton who says all the wrong things and is seen as a buffoon. Thanks to Phil Johnson's solid screenplay and Ed Helms' non-stereotypical approach to Tim, "Cedar Rapids" treats all its characters with a healthy dose of humanity and heart. Ed Helms shows the sweetness combined with his innocence that makes for more than a one-dimensional man child. John C. Reilly could have mined his over-the-top theatrics from any of the roles he played in the Will Ferrell collection, but instead aims higher by dialing it down and showing his sincerity underneath his party-boy antics. Anne Heche, an actress who has not had the chance to fully realize a character in quite some time, is absolutely stunning in the best performance she has given. Her character, Joan, engages in affairs when she's not home with her husband but the movie doesn't criticize her for her actions. You can tell she cares for Tim. Ditto for Isiah Whitlock, Jr. as the hard-working Ronald who is a fan of the cable show "The Wire."

"Cedar Rapids" is a wonderful and tantalizing comic gem, ably supported by Ed Helms and the supporting cast (also includes a sprightly Sigourney Weaver as Lippe's former schoolteacher). Its tale of an innocent and dapper man who, despite his brief foray into a drug-addled party and wooing Joan and Bree who may not be the right romantic matches, maintains a level of integrity almost on the level of Frank Capra. You might say, Capra ideals in this sexed-up, cell-phone-attached, facebooked "me" world? Why not? I'd even vote for him for President, that is, of ASMI. 

Swift, swift, and away

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (2010) 

RevieweD by Jerry Saravia

When I first read Jonathan Swift's satirical classic, "Gulliver Travels," I was blown away by the political threads in it and at how unkind those Lilliputians were (to be fair, the Lilliputs are only in the first part of a four-part story). Alas, this umpteenth version of the story has little to remind anyone of the original. It is a cartoonish and gargantuan-sized picture, full of pop-culture references  but it contains something that few children's films seem to possess - it is fun and has a sense of wonder (though not as wondrous as the original source).

Gulliver is a beer-bellied Jack Black who has been working in the mail-room for ten years. He is fond of Darcy, a writer (played by Amanda Peet, whose role seems to have been left on the cutting room floor), but doesn't have the nerve to ask her out. Gulliver is keen on impressing her by pretending to have an interest in travel writing. He even submits a travel piece (plagiarized from several "Time Out" articles) and actually goes on the voyage of a lifetime to the Bermuda Triangle. That is until there is a raging storm and a watery vortex that takes him to the land of Lilliput where everyone speaks with words that end in "eth" (the epitome of wit in this movie, which is fine because it makes one wish someone included it in "The Princess Bride"). Gulliver wakes up in a beach tied down by the Lilliputs and that is where Swift begins and ends (The Voyage to Brobdingnag where Gulliver is pint-sized in a land of giants is given short-shrift here with Gulliver forced to wear a dress in a doll house).

Most of "Gulliver's Travels" is not interested in corrupt human beings, misanthropy or European government criticisms. In fact, this film stays in the land of Lilliput where everything is commercialized (by Gulliver) and where Jack Black can do battle with a fleet of ships by flexing his belly to deflect cannonballs. Gulliver stages a KISS concert, the Star Wars trilogy with Lilliput actors, has a fight scene with a giant Transformer with a helping of Iron Man, and helps the sweet-tempered Horatio (Jason Segel) woo the most beautiful princess in the land, Princess Mary (Emily Blunt). Yeppers, we are in Princess Bride waters here.

I enjoyed "Gulliver's Travels" but it is so far removed from anything Swiftian that it might seem like a bastardized adaptation. It is bastardized but it is also an engaging bastardization with an overall appealing cast (Jason Segel and Emily Blunt perform with zest). It is a big, colorful, crude cartoon that Warner Bros. might have tried back in the day with Bugs Bunny and friends, but there is no hint of satire here at all. Jack Black fans, like myself, will enjoy it a lot more than Jonathan Swift fans.

Smurf on this

THE SMURFS (2011)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

 

I know that a live-action film based on the Belgian-created little blue people is technically targeted at kids, but it also assumes that someone like me, who grew into a teenager during the 1980's when the little blue thingies had an animated series, is also targeted at my nostalgia. So my thoughts are that the first feature-length "Smurfs" movie is basically fun and a little shapeless but fun all the same, aimed at the kid in all of us. Nothing wrong with that.

The Smurfs are the 3-apple high Blue People who live in mushroom houses in the middle of the woods and invisible to the naked eye. There is Clumsy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Gutsy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Chef Smurf, etc. Papa Smurf leads the clan, and there is the one anomaly in the male-dominated group, the adorable female Smurfette (voiced by Katy Perry). Thanks to evil and clumsy wizard Gargamel (played by a live, non-animated human, Hank Azaria), the Smurfs' village is under siege by the wizard and his evil, snarling cat. During their escape, the Blue Kids find themselves sucked into a vortex that lands them in New York City. Why there is a vortex that leads to the Big Apple, I do not understand but I am not looking for logic here (something similar happens in the far superior and magical film, "Enchanted").

So the Smurfs find themselves running around New York and Neil Patrick Harris's apartment (Harris plays a marketing expert), trying in vain to elude the evil Gargamel. Eventually the evil wizard kidnaps Papa Smurf and hopes to remove his "Smurf essence" (What?) with the aid of a dragon wand that will make the wizard more powerful! Right, sure.

I loved the opening sequence of "The Smurfs" so much that I had hoped it would remain there. Instead the film's four screenwriters decide to send the Blue Kids to New York, and so we get some inspired cameos from Liz Smith, Joan Rivers and Tim Gunn (the most inspired). Sofia Vergara is fun for a while though her role in this film is misguided and confused - either she is not bitchy enough or the writers forgot to make her bitchier when she threatens to fire Harris's character through a text! Neil Patrick Harris seems like he is in a daze but I did enjoy his slapstick pratfalls (though he could have used some of the wit he brings to his TV show, "How I Met Your Mother").

The Smurfs are fun to watch (the Scottish Gutsy Smurf - a new Smurf - is my favorite) and are animated through CGI technology in such a way that pays tribute to the animated series, instead of having them jump around frantically like so many other CGI animated pictures that combine live-action (cueing Mr. Garfield Kitty). The movie gets a bit tedious (Smurf this, Smurf that, only so much I can take) but there is a hint of devilish wit in the few scenes between Gargamel and Sofia Vergara. As I said before, there is something for the kids and something for the adults.

Annie tastes good this year

FOXES (1980)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

 

Discriminating viewers and parents might scoff at "Foxes" and wonder why the kids are so miserable in this film that they resort to alcoholic binges. Actually, only one kid suffers the most - the others are simply trying to grow up and go with the flow. That is the basis for "Foxes" and the elegiac little masterpiece of neon-lit, punk youth nirvana, "Times Square" (both films came out the same year and did not make much of a splash at the box-office). "Foxes" is not a masterpiece of film but it is a canny, observant, sensitive portrayal of teenagers in the San Fernando Valley.

Jodie Foster is Jeanie, the seeming matriarch in her group of friends who sleep at each other's houses and try to survive in an adult world. We do not see them in school much but we do see how they relate to each other. Jeanie cares about her friends and listens, especially to her skateboarding pal, Brad (Scott Baio). There is also the boy-crazy Deirdre (Kandice Stroh) who has her eyes set on a supermarket bagger; the virginal Madge (Marilyn Kagan) who pines for an older man, Jay (Randy Quaid); and the very troubled teenage runaway, Annie (Cherie Currie) who wants to shut out her abusive father who happens to be a police officer. Jeanie also has her hands full with her single, frustrated mother (Sally Kellerman), who is also attending college, and her emotionally distant father who is a tour manager for the rock band Angel. Jeanie's main concern is the safety of the pill-polling, frequently wasted Annie.   

Nobody in this movie is the least bit interested in school. These kids drive around town, hang out in construction sites or waterways, go to concerts, and get drunk. Parents are almost an afterthought but these teenage kids do not reflect any sort of anomie - they are trying to find their identity, their purpose in the moment. Jeanie seems the most mature, Madge wants to grow up too fast, Annie is simply a lost soul, and Brad wants to be romantically involved with Annie.

"Foxes" is extraordinarily shot and directed by Adrian Lyne (his debut film). He has an improvisatory eye for naturalism, relying on making the film an almost documentary-like expose with soft lighting (his visual trademark). Lyne also knows how to make the most of a scene, especially a dinner party that turns realistically frightening when too many teenagers show up and cause a ruckus (most 80's teen comedy-dramas can't quite match a scene like the one Lyne stages). Scenes with Annie are also realistically staged with major kudos to ex-Runaways band singer, Cherie Currie, who is explosive in her acting debut. Jodie Foster also delivers the goods with her trademark sympathy and soulfulness. And a scene where Brad tries to escape on a skateboard from a ragtag group of punks almost matches the excitement of similar scenes in "Back to the Future" (wonder if Robert Zemeckis got the idea of a skateboarding Marty McFly from "Foxes.")

"Foxes" is not perfect but it is a solidly sublime, universal and very moving take on what is means to make that transition from teenager to adult in suburbia. And I might not look at a pear tree the same way again.

No Joy in this Yuletide tale

SANTA CLAUS: THE MOVIE (1985)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Director Jeannot Szwarc has not had the greatest track record for movies ("Jaws 2," "Supergirl" - the latter is one of my guilty pleasures) but at least he tries. What he and the Salkind producers had exactly in mind for "Santa Claus: The Movie" is beyond me. A fairly dark opening sequence and fairly crude and downbeat humor make most of the middle section of "It's a Wonderful Life" seem positively upbeat by comparison. This "Santa Claus" is for kids who like coal in their stockings.

Perfectly cast David Huddleston is Claus, a jovial man in his 50's who delivers toys to children in neighboring villages during a horrific blizzard. As we see him and his wife trying to deliver in a sleigh led by two exhausted reindeer, it is the 14th century and this man is not the magical Santa Claus yet. They struggle but the old couple almost die from freezing weather until they are rescued by the Vendequm, who seem to approach them from the Northern Star (this felt quite religious in its symbolism since I thought Baby Jesus' manger was nearby). The Vendequm are the elves from the North Pole who rescue the couple and tell them that Claus is the Chosen One. And the Ancient Elf (Burgess Meredith) bestows his wisdom and off goes Santa and the reindeer to deliver toys on Christmas Eve to the children everywhere, century after century.

At this point, "Santa Claus" does a fine job of detailing the enormity of the Santa Workshop and the dozens of elves who are put to work to make toys from plywood. Patch (Dudley Moore) is the elf who sees the wave of the future in hydraulics and plumbing (he even quips to Santa at their initial meeting that he has an idea about pipes emitting heat!) But when there is the homeless kid in New York City (which Santa seems to think is the only homeless kid in the world) and the introduction of B.Z. (John Lithgow), a greedy toy maker who hires Patch after Patch is demoted from being Santa's assistant, the movie becomes sour and dreary. Even when the film tries to be magical and instill a sense of wonder about Santa, it fails. The movie is cheerier in its early North Pole scenes.

The movie has little time or patience to consider who Santa is. At one point, Santa questions the tradition of Christmas when things go awry with lollipops that make children fly. But when the film shifts to B.Z. and Patch making explosive candy canes, I was lost and felt I was in some other movie. Huddleston does the part with pride, Moore comes off as a colorful enough elf, and Lithgow is a wacky villain with a touch of Lex Luthor (the Salkinds also produced the Superman films, hence the Luthor comparison). I actually wonder why St. Nick at the end of the movie didn't retire or quit. Who needs this much dreariness?